365 Tarot Spreads: Revealing the Magic in Each Day

About the Author

Sasha Graham teaches tarot classes and produces tarot events at New York City’s premier cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has shared her love of tarot on film, television, radio, and print. She resides in New York City. Visit her online at sashagraham.com.

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

365 Tarot Spreads: Revealing the Magic in Each Day © 2014 by Sasha Graham.

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E-book ISBN: 9780738740614

Author photo by Karl Giant

Book design and edit by Rebecca Zins

Cover design by Kevin R. Brown

Cover and interior images: Universal Tarot by R. De Angelis © Lo Scarabeo;

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Llewellyn Publications

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this is for

Isabella, Mackenzie, and Skylar.

Never stop questioning.

Contents

Introduction

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Acknowledgments

Index of Spreads

Introduction

Sometimes an author chooses the subject; other times the subject chooses the author. 365 Tarot Spreads was a case of the latter; this book chose me.

You’ll discover, as I did, a plethora of 365 books if you look for them. Daily books of spells, goddesses, simple advice, daily living, sexual positions, creativity guides, meditations, journaling suggestions, recipes, happiness boosters, motivations, and ideas ad infinitum for each day of the year.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover no tarot book for each day of the year existed, especially since for many cartomancers (a fancy name for tarot lovers), tarot is a hallowed daily practice. Pulling daily cards is not only an excellent tarot learning tool but a ritual for what I’d imagine are hundreds of thousands of readers.

Even my sister, director of a large drug addiction rehabilitation facility in the healing airs of Malibu, California, pulls a card from her mermaid deck for guidance and inspiration before important meetings. She wouldn’t describe herself as a tarotist, but she understands the importance of a clear, concise message or theme when one is needed and the usefulness of a card as a focal point when focus is called for.

This is the sublime nature of tarot: tarot pulls focus. It gives your attention a resting point. The dialogue a reader has with their cards is a rapid-fire, emotion-filled experience leading to informed decision-making and change. Why? Because we tend to live in our heads and in the experience of our brains. Tarot brings us out of ourselves. It moves our perception outwards and onto the cards before us. Rather than living with the possibility imagined in our mind’s eye, the possibility is spread on the table before us. This small bit of space—this foot or two of distance between reader and cards—allows us perspective. Like the value of age and wisdom, tarot spreads allow us to step back, reevaluate, and consider motives, actions, and outcomes from a different vantage point. In this space intuition leaps to life and we actively listen for guidance.

For many of us, this is done on a daily basis. So why not create a tarot spread for each and every day of the year?

On Questioning

The root of a question is a quest—a journey, act, or instance of seeking or pursuing something. A tarot reading is a search, a journey, a quest for truth. Tarot decks lie in wait for your questions: What do I want to know, see, meditate on—? The first thing a tarot reader asks the client is, What do you want to know? To come to tarot is to come with a curious mind. A tarot spread can alter the course of your life—or not; it is entirely up to you. Will you sit on the information gathered or will you act on it?

At some point in the process of writing this book, it occurred to me that there must be a set number of questions someone could ask about themselves and their life. While each individual’s journey is infinite, the language surrounding the journey, the articulation of those questions, must have a set limit. The questions wouldn’t include the likes of What makes volcanoes erupt? though you can ask tarot anything you want. This book is concerned with questions in regard to one’s life: Does he love me? Am I making the right choice? What should I do? There are small differences in how questions are phrased, but the essential quest, search, desire, and intended or hoped for outcome is essentially a set number. This is why most tarot readings come down to the same few subjects: love, money, career, and life path.

Interestingly, the relatively small number of questions one could ask doesn’t make the experience of life feel small; it’s quite the opposite. Magic and uniqueness occur in the way we color our existence. We are far from robots operating in a factory line of mindless repetition. A simple description of the human body states two arms, two legs, one heart, one brain. On the surface, this appears simple, set, and staid. But the way we inhabit our bodies is unique. Therein lies infinity. And if you don’t believe me, look at the bodies ambling down Forty- Second Street in New York City. Gaze at ballet dancers leaping across the stage. Watch toddlers move. Infinity exists amidst essentials.

Small, finite sets of human existence are apparent everywhere. The twelve signs of the zodiac cover the fundamental qualities indicative of the human psyche, thus millions of people look at the same horoscope and say, Yes. This is me! Shakespeare’s thirty-seven plays comprise the essential dramatic narrative of human existence. He’s told all of our stories. The Hero’s Journey is apparent in cross-cultural mythology. Its narrative arc is rife through the major arcana and resonates with every person on earth. All religious dogma boils down to a handful of essential truths. Our life ultimately contains a few vital themes, issues, and problems. We find ourselves continually working out these same issues over and over again. Even sacred geometry tells us nature is made of repetitive patterns. The tiny spiral of a black snail in morning sunlight is the same shape of spiral galaxies light years away in outer space. Everything repeats.

With repetitiveness comes opportunity—a chance to do something again, to cultivate newness, to reach higher, to love deeper, to become smarter. And if we are lucky—if we work hard, if we question well amidst the repetition—something Charles Darwin referred to as saltation occurs: the pattern changes.

On Being Human

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of humanity’s earliest surviving works of literature and the subject of a college lecture I think of often. Why do we care? asks Ron Long, professor of religion at Hunter College. Why bother to read this ancient story? Why does it matter? Great question. Why consider an old story like Gilgamesh? Why study a 4,000-year-old adventure about two best friends?

It matters, Long explains, because it is what makes us human. The second half of the epic focuses on Gilgamesh’s heartbreak and distress when his best friend is killed. Gilgamesh’s sorrow is excruciating and sends him off on a quest for immortality. Long’s point is that the sudden loss of a best friend for a person living 4,000 years ago is as heartfelt, as tragic, as it is for us today. Four thousand years later we remain the same delicate, fragile, and emotional creatures we have always been. External circumstances may be different—we may fly in airplanes rather than ride camels to traverse deserts—but at our core, we are the same. We are human.

Approaching 365 Tarot Spreads, I encountered, once again, that not much separates us from our ancestors or our neighbors. The challenge was writing a book where anyone, anywhere, could discover a set of questions applicable to their current situation, desires, and needs—to make it possible for anyone, in any situation, to find articulation for their quest.

It is the same goal a professional tarot reader faces: to offer insight and information to the people who come to them. People from all walks of life cross the path of the professional reader: young, old, wealthy, poor, bored, excited, depressed, enthused. The professional tarot reader becomes an inadvertent sociologist. Within the intimate framework of a reading, be it a five- or fifty- minute session, as complete strangers bare their hearts and souls, a delicate lesson is learned and relearned. We are the same. We are human.

From Superbowl athletes to Little League coaches, from movie starlets to housekeepers, from the wealthy to the poor, it doesn’t matter; each person yearns for love and validation as much as you do. People’s questions are the same. No matter class, color, or creed, everyone wants love, security, and acceptance from their peers. Everyone desires a sense of belonging and purpose. Our essential needs and desires remain the same.

I get the feeling that if any of us sat in ancient Babylon in the corner of a bar, reading tarot for those Babylonians, the questions asked would be the same questions people ask today because we are all human. We all feel scared, we all feel rejection, we are all uncertain, we all have highs and lows. At our core we are all the same.

Why does any of this matter? Because it means we are not alone.

On Time

Writing a book for each day of the year, one begins to consider with greater interest the nature of a calendar. What is it and why? Calendars exist to mark the passage of time. Ancient people crawled out of caves, and as summer days grew longer, they knew more sunlight meant greater safety from the hungry beasts lurking in darkness. Our first calendars were the glittering constellations, our night sky. In agricultural societies, calendars let us know when to plant and harvest. Calendar knowledge equaled survival. The Industrial Revolution brought calendars and clocks telling factory workers when to get up and go to work. We are not much different than our farming or factory-working forebears. We use time to coordinate busy lives, careers, schedules, knowing when and where to be. At the movies, we calculate with precision the time it takes to get our popcorn before the previews begin.

But time offers us something more on a profound level: security. Life’s true nature is terrifying; it is random. On a deep level we intellectually realize Earth is literally spinning beneath our feet, hurtling through space. We know, on the other side of the world, people are literally upside down from us but feel right-side up to themselves. We know from the painful lessons of tragedy that life can change in the blink of an eye. But time is something we can depend upon. Humanity’s agreement of time is regulated. If you buy a ticket to see Bruno Mars next Saturday at 8

pm

, 25,000 other people will show up right alongside you to hear the Mars man sing. The dependability and agreeability of time makes it a comforting thing, so calendars prevail and a year is sliced into 365 sunrises and sunsets.

But time is a slippery subject. None of us know how much time we have. When we find out our time is up, it will be too late. Why, when we were ten years old, did a summer last forever but fly in the blink of an eye at age thirty? Maybe because children live in terms of possibility, while adults tend to live in relation to the past. We all fall prey to living in relation to the past. But tarot intercedes. Tarot contains a gift. Tarot, like childhood, presents us with the possible. Each time we flip a card, we sense the possibility. This is why no matter how many years you’ve worked with tarot, every time you pull a card feels like the first time you’ve ever done so; it’s why tarot never loses its excitement. Tarot makes virgins of all of us.

Author Jeanette Winterson says time stops everything from happening at once. She says there are two times: that time belonging to the outer world—to the calendar, Earth’s revolutions around the sun—and time in our personal inner world, our inner landscape. Inside ourselves, we experience events as if time were happening simultaneously. To challenge linear time, realize that events separated by years lie side by side imaginatively and emotionally inside of you. She suggests an attempt to live in total time. While abiding by the time on my computer, I simultaneously feel the warmth of my first real kiss, the thrill running down my spine, the smell of his skin, the song playing in the background. I am fourteen and I am forty-two, in two places at once. Can you do this? Of course you can. You are a supernatural creature. You too can live in total time.

It is the province of the tarot reader to move backwards, forwards, even sideways in time. It is what we do best. Readers, our cards—our imaginations—lie outside of calendar time. These are the highways, landscapes, and environments visited by shamans, artists, seers, and mystics—the world of the imagination. Story, essence, truth, gods, eternity, and symbols exist here. This is why tarot is a gateway to worlds of esoteric study, why tarot is an entrance to the occult. Because what is hidden can only be revealed by experience. Archetypes are experiential. Tarot is experiential.

This is what Greece’s ancient mystery schools offered. Their lessons could not be taught, explained, or orated. The lessons had to be experienced. You can’t know the mystery until you experience the mystery. A boy in a New Guinea tribe cannot be lectured on his initiatory experience. He is given tools for survival for his three-day initiation in the woods. He is equipped and taught to fend off wild beasts, but his experience occurs alone. He quests for himself. He comes through the process changed. This is exactly what the Fool does. This is what tarot does. It is what you will do if you allow it. This quest occurs outside of calendar time. It is entirely internal. And 365 Tarot Spreads is here for you on the outside, provoking you with questions and ideas when you need them.

I hope you enjoy this book—hope it aids you, no matter your quest. May the roads you choose be filled with magic and wonder, with galaxies of possibility and oceans of love. Hopefully you’ll never have to use the Divorce Spread, the Rejection Spread, or the Letting Go Spread. But life is full of bumps and bruises just as it is full of soft baby kisses and snuggles, so the spreads are there in case you need them.

I hope you find your truth and that when you do, you stand in the middle of it strong, beautiful, and nimble like the World dancer. Because when the Fool followed her own path and trusted herself, she found herself in the World. And by the time she did, she was so high on the music—so enraptured by the dancing, so lost in the beauty, so in tune with herself, and so filled with magic—she didn’t even realize that she’d arrived at her destination.

Sasha Graham

new york city, 2013

[contents]

January • 1

Vision Board Spread

On This Day

Welcome to the first day of the year! New Year’s resolutions have been made; many will be broken. Now is the perfect time to create a vision board to usher the bold and beautiful into your life. Rather than merely contemplating resolutions, a vision board helps you spring toward action.

Summation of Spread

The Hermit shuts himself from the world to cultivate wisdom. This equates with the meditative state one enters when going through the process of selecting images. When the Hermit emerges, he shines his vision from his lamp, a six-pointed star. It lights the path of enlightenment for those who would follow.

A vision board is a collection of images placed where you can see it clearly. You select and assemble images to bring change, manifestation, and direction into your life. Use the Vision Board Spread whenever you begin construction on a new vision board.

Cast Your Cards

This spread lays out like a vision board. Use this spread for inspiration while creating your dreams in visual form. Nine questions are proposed because nine is the number of wish fulfillment. Cast your cards well—and happy visioning!

1. What is the overriding theme of my vision board?

2. What are my wildest dreams?

3. What types of images resonate with me?

4. Can I let go emotionally and mentally in my selection process?

5. Where do I want to travel?

6. How do I want to make a difference?

7. What do I want to attract into my life?

8. What tiny adjustment can I make to manifest this vision board?

9. What happens when I take action on my dreams?

January • 2

Speak with Ancestors Spread

On This Day

Ancestors’ Day (Jour des Aieux) occurs today on the tropical island of Haiti. The celebration rings in the new year while honoring the past. Haitians remember those who have died within the previous twelve months and pay homage to those who perished fighting for Haitian independence in the early nineteenth century.

Summation of Spread

The Ten of Pentacles represents pedigree, bloodlines, and the family tree. Complete, strong, and resistant to the ravages of time, it is the card of evolution and kindred connection. Drawing this card is a reminder we play but a small role in the tapestry of a larger generational story.

Would you like to speak to your ancestors? Communicate with the spirit world using tarot. Conversations with guides, angels, and ancestors will spring forth between cards and candle. Use this spread to converse with souls of family members who have gone before you.

Cast Your Cards

Family magic and wisdom is collected by casting your cards in the shape of a family tree.

1. Who am I speaking with?

2. What talent thrives in our family?

3. What is the overlying challenge or lesson of our family?

4. What is the legacy I hold?

5. What are your hopes for me?

6. How do I make the most with what I have inherited?

7. What must I do?

January • 3

Protection Spread

On This Day

The feast of Saint Genevieve, patron saint of Paris, is celebrated today. Genevieve reported frequent visions of heavenly saints and angels from a young age. Graced with clairvoyance and miracle working, it is said her prayers and fasting saved Paris from a harrowing attack from Attila the Hun in 451

ce

. Legend also states when her relics (pieces of her body kept as objects of reverence) were carried through the streets during the Parisian plague in 1129, she miraculously intervened to stop the spread of the plague as the death toll plummeted.

Summation of Spread

The Queen of Wands maintains the strongest energetic field in the deck because she commands the element of fire, passion, and spirituality. If you plan on reading tarot for others, energetic protection and grounding is important. It is possible to unintentionally absorb the querent’s energies, both positive and negative.

Channel St. Genevieve’s good graces when you feel the need for extra strength and protection. The questions ponder from whom, how, and why you might need extra security and care.

Cast Your Cards

Witches often raise cones of energy (recall the symbolism of a witch’s hat) when needing kinetic protection. Imagine a cone of protective white light around you while casting your cards.

1. Am I open to the influence of others?

2. What energy surrounds me?

3. Is there energy I must be aware of?

4. Who aids me?

5. What protection can I count on?

6. How can I ground myself?

7. What should I do to protect myself?

January • 4

Big Purchase Spread

On This Day

Industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the wealthiest men of American history, died on this day in 1877. Leaving most of his fortune to his son Henry, who doubled it, this patriarch is ancestor to Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper. The Vanderbilts created luxurious residences, many of which are open today for public touring, and left a legacy of philanthropy including Vanderbilt University and the Medical School at Columbia University.

Summation of Spread

The Ace of Pentacles represents the revitalization of finance, new forms of income, and the manifestation of a goal. The fertile garden indicates that growth is essential. Money spent is returned twofold, and often it represents a financial windfall or inheritance.

Are you about to make a large purchase? The Big Purchase Spread uses captains of finance for inspiration when contemplating financial decisions. Summon a Vanderbilt with your cards and invest wisely.

Cast Your Cards

Is the item in question worth the money you are about to spend? Cast the cards to discover your answer.

1. Can I borrow it?

2. What will I do with it?

3. How often will I use it?

4. Do I really even want it?

5. Can I really afford it?

January • 5

Bird’s-Eye View Spread

On This Day

National Bird Day is observed today. Dedicated to the admiration and preservation of birds, it also raises people’s awareness for birds held in captivity. Unbound by human laws of nature, birds often represent a link between conscious and subconscious, heaven and earth, groundedness and possibility. Birds are universally understood as a symbol for soul, anima, freedom, or the world soul hidden in matter.

Summation of Spread

The Nine of Pentacles holds a fierce falcon on her delicately gloved hand. This falcon represents loyalty. Bird images in tarot represent the highest aspects of our being taking flight and the ability to reach beyond our normal perceptions and boundaries.

Muddled by decisions? Confused about your path? Taking a bird’s-eye view offers a unique way to evaluate your life and choices. This helpful strategy asks you to float up and look at your life from a bird’s perspective. This wide angle renders small things as they truly are—insignificant—and focuses on what is truly important in the grand scheme of life.

Cast Your Cards

Shuffle your cards while thinking about the question at hand. Eyes closed, start throwing cards on the table in front of you. Look down like a god from above to discover which cards land upright and face you. Read these cards left to right to answer the Bird’s-Eye View Spread’s questions.

1. What is my situation?

2. What didn’t I see before?

3. How do I best see the overall view?

4. What becomes apparent when looking down from above?

5. Where am I heading?

6. What is truly important?

7. What should I remember?

8. What is my message?

January • 6

Kick a Bad Habit Spread

On This Day

Today, the twelfth day after Christmas, or Twelfth Night, is known as Little Christmas in Ireland. Older calendars that use the Julian calendar mark today as the traditional Christmas celebration. Modern practices dictate today as the traditional end of the holiday season, when trimmings are removed and festoons are swept away till next year.

Summation of Spread

Swords are the wickedly sharp suit of elimination. Swords can feel frightful because they represent thoughts, calculation, and change. Embrace the fierceness of a sword when slicing away a habit.

Why not rid a bad habit as you clean? Remove decorations and make this task a magical metaphor. Decide a bad habit will be removed right along with holiday frill. This spread helps you identify and remove pesky habits, and it’s best done before decoration removal.

Cast Your Cards

In your mind’s eye, picture yourself free of the habit. Imagine yourself as you’d like to be. In a calm and focused manner, cast the cards in the shape of the holiday garland soon to be removed.

1. My habit.

2. Why do I have this habit?

3. Why does it need to go?

4. What helps end the habit?

5. What happens when it is gone?

6. What challenges me?

7. What supports me?

8. What can I keep in mind when struggling?

9. What is my result?

January • 7

Excellent Eating Habits Spread

On This Day

The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, a gastronomic classic, was published this day in 1896. Its emphasis on good foods, fresh flavor, and variety is why it remains a favorite to this day.

Summation of Spread

The Three of Pentacles depicts three figures in discussion about the building of a sacred space. Often representing collaboration, you can also understand this card as growing in healthy ways and the sacred space being your body.

The consumption and preparation of food is a connection to the life force itself—an opportunity to indulge in pleasure and health simultaneously. If you plan to change eating habits, emphasize the positive rather than dwell on the negative. This spread focuses on cultivating excellent eating habits.

Cast Your Cards

Notice bright sunlight dappling your kitchen, feel the health radiating from a juicy apple, and cast your cards.

1. What role does food play in my life?

2. Do I ever abuse myself with food?

3. How can I nurture myself with food?

4. How does food tie in to my emotional state?

5. When do I eat most unhealthily?

6. What habitual eating pattern is most important to change?

7. What encourages me to eat natural, unprocessed foods?

8. What helps me plan ahead for better eating?

9. What is a small step I can take right now?

January • 8

Get Out of Debt Spread

On This Day

In 1835, President Andrew Jackson rose to make an announcement few presidents have had the honor of making: Gentlemen, the national debt is paid. It was the first time the nation was debt-free, and it lasted for one year.

Summation of Spread

The King of Pentacles is associated with great wealth. He excels in business, real estate, and practical matters, and he is serious about his financial situation. His scepter represents power and he sits in the very kingdom he has created. He is generous, reliable, and patient.

Being debt-free releases anxiety, allows you to save, and gives you the freedom to choose what you spend money on. Today’s spread uses this auspicious day to begin a dialogue with yourself about your debt situation.

Cast Your Cards

Imagine yourself debt-free. Take a breath. Know that you build confidence and stability with each card you cast.

1. What is a core reason I got into debt?

2. How much debt do I really have?

3. Do I use my credit card to pay for basics?

4. Do I buy things I do not have cash for?

5. Do I lie to others about what I spend money on?

6. Do I borrow money from friends and family?

7. Can I stop going over the amount I have budgeted for myself?

8. Can I honestly start tracking my spending?

9. Can I create a financial approach that will work?

10. What is the result of implementing my plan?

January • 9

Mermaid Magic Spread

On This Day

Christopher Columbus, sailing near the Dominican Republic, spotted three mermaids on this day in 1493. He reported them to be not half as beautiful as they are painted. In truth, Columbus was looking at manatees, slow-moving aquatic mammals with gentle eyes and large, long bodies.

Summation of Spread

The Queen of Cups connects to mermaid magic as she rules from her throne at the sea. Speaking the language of whales and dolphins, her elusive watery